I leave for Poland tomorrow night and for good reason.  I'm going to see a friend, Joanna, who lived with us for the first year after we adopted Rachel.  She was a real godsend, and I don't know how we would have made it through the year without her.  Joanna's getting married this summer, and i couldn't be more proud.  I love her and can't wait to see her.

Joanna is one of a kind.  She could be very intimidating without meaning to. She came home one day and told us about a guy who came up and asked if she had just gotten out of physics class.  “I don’t understand,” she said.  “He saw me coming out of the physic’s room.  What a stupid question!”

Joanna,” we said. “He was hitting on you.  He was attempting to start a conversation.”

 

The same thing happened one night after she had finished life guarding.  Some poor guy asked if she was finished swimming.  “Yeah,” she said.  “Why do you think I’m headed for the locker room?”  She didn’t have a clue.

Both of us could be very intimidating if we wanted to be.  As such, we could get away with saying certain things to each other that, if someone else had said them, we might get a bit upset.  I often slept on the couch because it was more comfortable and I slept better than on a regular bed.  One of Joanna’s favorite things to tell me was “Steve, you’d better be careful.  Otherwise you will be sleeping on the couch tonight.  Oh, I forgot, you’re already sleeping on the couch!”  I don’t know why I ever put up with such abuse.

 

There was another occasion when she was cooking on the stove, and I was trying to put something in the pan.  Without giving it a second thought, she looked at me and said, “WILL YOU STOP SHAKING!”  Now if anyone else had said that, I would have been pretty ticked.  But, for some reason, when Joanna said it, we just both cracked up laughing.

She came to visit us one weekend after we moved to Upland.  We had all said our goodnights and went off to bed.  I got up the next morning and saw Joanna’s bedroom door opened.  Apparently she hadn’t bothered locking her door, and sometime around 2:00 in the morning, Rachel got out of bed and made her way over to Joanna’s room.  There they were, both together, sleeping on a twin size bed.

Sometimes I get weepy when I think of how much she helped us with Rachel that first year.  I think the world of her and love her dearly.  Wherever she goes, Joanna will always be a part of our family.  Here's to you, Asia (Joanna's nickname).